In less than two weeks, we’ll get to find out just what Tony Stark has been up to since the Avengers’ big showdown in New York. The Iron Man 3 trailers have hinted that he’s struggling a bit with the aftermath, and that there are tougher times and meaner villains ahead still. But one enemy he won’t be battling is alcoholism.

Though the “Demon in a Bottle” storyline is one of the most iconic from the Iron Man comics, director Shane Black and writer Drew Pearce say that not only has it not been incorporated into Iron Man 3, it’s unlikely it’ll make its way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe any time in the near future. Find out why after the jump.

Iron Man 2 touched upon Tony’s struggles with alcohol, most memorably in a scene where he gets wasted at a party while still in costume and ends up fighting with Rhodes. However, the studio warned Black and Pearce that a heavy-duty alcoholism plotline wouldn’t play well with kids. Black lamented in an interview with Comic Book Movie:

Even if you look at the websites of the mommy bloggers they say, you know, ‘Watch out, moms! Tony drinks in this movie!’ It’s amazing. There’s one or two scenes in this movie where he picks up a drink and it’ll be in those blogs.

Not that their Tony has to be totally without flaws.

I think we were just told by the studio that we should probably paint Tony Stark as being kind of an industrialist and a crazy guy, or even a bad guy at some points, but the “Demon in a Bottle” stuff of him being an alcoholic wouldn’t really fly. I don’t blame that.

Besides, they note, “Demon in a Bottle” may not have been the best fit for Iron Man 3 anyway. “It’s also kind of a ‘pick your battles’ thing; alcoholism is a massive problem but it’s also not the best villain for a movie,” Pearce said.

Still, given that Tony’s struggles with booze are an established part of the comic book character, Black suggests “Demon in a Battle” could make it to screen once all other options are exhausted. “I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point someone wanted to make a movie and they’d run out of directions for the character, then they’ve still got ‘Demon in a Bottle,'” he said.